Obama’s State of Denial Address

President Obama once again delivered a campaign speech disguised as a State of the Union address. Obama is good with rhetoric that stirs emotions while denying reality, so those who succumb to such gibberish will be ecstatic. Those who are not in denial will be frightened by the direction this president is taking.

Obama’s denial of his administration’s failure to improve job growth was evident in his calling for a higher minimum wage. If there are no jobs available at a minimum rate of $7.25 an hour, how would raising it to $9.00 help create more? It wouldn’t, and many experts have warned against such an increase at this time, especially since it could result in jobs being exported to China.

Obama further denied the job crisis and threw out another emotional bone to hungry believers by stressing a college education. The unemployment lines are full of college graduates unable to find jobs, so the primary emphasis needs to be on the economy and job growth. Talking of college educations certainly plucks parents’ heart strings, Obama’s intent; but it hides his administration’s failure to improve the job market and reduce unemployment.

Obama declared Al Qaeda to be a “shadow of its former self”, denying Al Qaeda’s continued successful attacks around the globe. Declaring Al Qaeda defeated doesn’t make it so, but it rationalizes bringing troops home so he can cut the defense budget. Obama only cares about his social programs and cutting the defense budget will help him finance those programs. Pretending Iran and North Korea are of little threat also helps him in that endeavor.

In Obama’s eyes, everything is going well because he is, by hook or by crook, finding a way to get everything he wants. Consequences are meaningless to one convinced of superior intelligence, especially when duped voters and a highly invested media ignore accountability.  His “green” agenda has been a costly disaster, but that bandwagon is still full and rolling.

Inadvertently, the president did touch on reality in his speech at one point when he said his spending proposals would not increase the deficit by “a single dime”. They will increase the deficit by billions of dimes and saddle future generations with the bill, higher taxes, and programs they will no longer be able to afford. On the brighter side, fast food joints will end up with the most educated employees of any industry – as long as Michelle doesn’t find a way of eliminating fast food.

David J. Hentosh

Obama Opened the Closet Door

Obama’s presidency has convinced the progressive left that their ideology is now mainstream America. They feel empowered by the arrogance of Obama’s ‘in-your-face’ liberalism and re-election and believe it is time to come out of the closet. Taking their cue from Obama’s war against everything conservative, they no longer try to hide contempt for conservative, Middle America values.

Thus, we find MSNBC show host Melissa Harris-Perry boldly admitting that the US military is despised as an engine of war by many progressives. This has been vehemently denied for years due to the backlash at the despicable treatment soldiers received during the Vietnam War era. The sham of respecting the military is being dropped.

We also find CBS boldly airing a segment about giving up on the Constitution. Many progressive ideas have been hampered by the Constitution and it is obvious they would like it altered, or eliminated, to suit their ideology. The process of removing that obstacle is being legitimized by the CBS segment.

President Obama has repeatedly shown that he cares more about redistribution than the country’s poor economy, spurring the progressive left to unleash resentment and hatred of the wealthy. Consequently, the rich have now replaced Bush as the scapegoat for all that is wrong.

Obama continues to rail against FOX News, the lone news network refusing to carry his water. This has emboldened many progressives to adopt that criticism, even while admitting they never watch FOX. This is deliberate abuse of the presidential “bully pulpit”. It is unseemly and it furthers the partisanship that is damaging the country.

From celebrity Samuel Jackson admitting voting for Obama because he is black to a NY Times reporter admitting almost every news organization submitted quotes to an Obama campaign “gatekeeper” for censoring, progressive liberals are no longer trying to hide their dirty ideological laundry.

Obama opened the closet door and whether it is true or not, progressive liberals believe the majority is behind them. As we all know, belief does not give ground to reason. The next four years may irreparably damage the very fabric of this nation.

David J. Hentosh

Women in War – Or War on Women?

Pentagon Chief Leon Panetta is removing the military’s ban on women in combat units. This move resembles a “war on women” (almost literally) more than anything the left has erroneously accused the GOP of doing. This is not surprising since the left always accuses others of sins they commit themselves.

This move will surely be considered a “win” by feminists claiming to want equality, but exactly who wins here? If the goal was to have equal gender representation in the body bags coming home from a war zone, it is highly doubtful that women burning their bras in the 60’s were aware of it. It is further doubtful that most young women today are eager to learn the art of combat or feel much empowered by having the equal opportunity to fight and die for their country in faraway lands.

As another domino falls in Obama’s “transformation” of America, we continue on the path to emulating other countries around the world rather than leading. The necessity for some countries to have women in combat units does not exist for us, but Obama’s personal ideology demands all be the same, just as feminists demand the sexes be the same.

Perhaps Obama will further emulate other countries by re-instituting the draft. Will he and feminists then rejoice in seeing young women plucked out of society and forced into military service? Will it be as liberating as the guilt feminists have caused in many women for wanting to be stay-at-home moms?

Feminists are increasing pressure on young women by demanding behaviors acceptable only to them. Obama is increasing pressure on society with policies chasing unrealistic personal goals. The excess of liberalism is “transforming” America into a nightmare rather than a dream. Is this really the direction America wishes to go?

David J. Hentosh

Everything is a Fake

Fake experience; fake superior intelligence; fake governing; fake concern for the middle class; fake blaming of the rich; fake bailout; fake economic recovery; fake compromising; fake speeches; fake toughness; fake moderation; fake jobs; fake health care savings; fake unemployment numbers; fake press conferences; fake interviews; fake vice president;

and now:

Fake singing of the National Anthem

 

DJH

Frightening Inauguration Speech

President Obama’s inauguration speech was a frightening glimpse into the next four years. He let it clearly be known that he is set to govern totally from the left and with carefully chosen rhetoric, he revealed his end game for “totally transforming” America.

Obama used his favorite obfuscating straw man tactic (clearly explained and revealed by Glen Beck) to validate his approach to almost everything. It is the smoke that carried him this far and will continue to do so as long as the mainstream media continues to inhale – and inhale they did.

Mainstream media praise knew no bounds and its bias could not be contained, exemplified by CNN correspondent Jim Acostas’ on-air giddiness at being so close to the president. Keeping in line with the adoration of Newsweek’s cover proclaiming Obama’s “second coming”, Obama’s communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, stated: “There’s a moment of opportunity now that’s important…What’s frustrating is that we don’t have a political system or an opposition party worthy of the opportunity.” That’s some arrogance on display.

Obama gave us his top priorities for his second term: equal pay, gay marriage, voting protections, immigration reform, and gun control. If you are in the 7.8% unemployed (the same unemployment rate as when Obama was first elected), that may be disheartening to hear but Obama also assured us that the economy is in recovery, eliminating the need to make unemployment a priority. He’d much rather increase spending.

National Defense and the military are not on the agenda because Obama informed us that a decade of war is now over. That must have occurred by means of one of his executive orders. Relief in Middle East countries will be immense when they learn of it. Perhaps part of his gun control priority will be an executive order for terrorists to turn in their guns and Iran to give up nukes.

Although Obama didn’t say climate change was a priority, one-trick-pony Al Gore still praised him for speaking “powerfully and eloquently” about it. Obama’s consistent first-term failures on the “green” front cooled his climate change desires but with no re-election holding him back, the “green” light is sure to be lit once more.

Obama’s focus on social issues got him re-elected but the larger, neglected issues are eroding the country. Obama is much more like Nero than Lincoln, blindly fiddling away as the country burns.

David J. Hentosh

The Never Ending Campaign

Obama is most comfortable on the campaign trail where reality can be ignored and his idealism can soar on lofty rhetoric designed to stir emotions rather than reason in crowds willing to believe every word. It is what he does best and theatrical campaign tactics remain a staple of his administration.

Every speech Obama delivers is in the form of a campaign stump speech. We saw this during his push for Obamacare when details of the heath care bill remained hidden behind numerous exaggerated benefits that, of course, have yet to materialize. The 2009 political theater he staged in the Rose Garden with doctors in lab coats was an embarrassment for the nation, but not for Obama. He was in his element.

Even now, after re-election and no longer courting votes, Obama can’t give up campaigning and political theater. He brought children to the signing of his 23 gun-related ‘executive orders’, using them as stage props to take the focus away from his arrogant forcing of legislation. Not only is this another embarrassing display, it is an insult to the intelligence of all. It is also indicative of how Obama looks down on the “masses” but, unfortunately, many remain willing to be treated as fools.

With re-election behind him, Obama is beginning to display more arrogance and less willingness to compromise. He no longer needs public approval in order to continue his “fundamental transformation” of America, but he does feel the need to campaign for it. Campaigning has been his most successful accomplishment and he can’t give it up.

Unfortunately, we will suffer through four more years of Obama’s campaigning before being subjected to another presidential campaign. Obama has succeeded in “transforming” politics into a never ending campaign. Do we really deserve this?

David J. Hentosh

Obama’s Fiscal Fallacy

President Obama continues to demand that the debt ceiling be raised, inferring that the nation’s bills will not be paid unless that ceiling is raised. His framing of economic issues skirts the truth and is done in such a way as to make him look like a rational and knowledgeable expert. The reality is that he is no expert; He is the problem.

Forty cents out of every dollar spent by the federal government is borrowed money and raising the debt ceiling only allows the government to borrow more money. It will not help reduce the debt or reduce the forty cents on the dollar borrowed. It will only help Obama increase entitlement spending to meet his personal, ideologically driven goals – by borrowing more money.

Obama has shown that the poor economy, high unemployment, and the enormous debt take a back seat to his personal ideology. This is why he fails to meet the legal requirement of submitting a budget by the first Monday in February. He has done that only once and will fail to do so again this year. In fact, he has failed to meet that requirement more than any previous president. It is not a priority on his agenda and legal requirements mean little to him.

Obama continually uses the blind faith many have in him, telling believers what they want to hear and spinning everything his way. It is the reason he was re-elected with an economy doing as poorly as it is and unemployment at such a high level. He uses rhetoric to solve economic problems in the minds of his followers while running up the tab fulfilling his personal agenda.

With no future re-election to hamper him, Obama’s arrogance is increasing as fast as the debt. His fiscal policies have been a farce and he is now aiming to ram through legislation on guns and immigration – through the back door. The bill for all of this will have to be paid eventually but by then he will be gone, leaving behind a costly and “fundamentally transformed” America for our children.

David J. Hentosh

The Farce Goes On and On

The National Monitor contains a headline stating: “Obama scores another victory: Unemployment rate falls to 7.8 percent, hiring continues”. The second sentence in the article reveals that the unemployment rate remains “unchanged” at 7.8%. How, then, can a stagnant unemployment rate be considered a victory for Obama? The answer, of course, is that everything Obama does must be considered a victory by today’s biased media.

An unemployment rate of 7.8% since September clearly shows that our economy is stagnant and not recovering, indicating that Obama’s economic policies are not working. Rising health insurance premiums reveal the fallacy of Obama’s promise of lower rates under Obamacare. The increase in social security taxes currently being felt by the middle class comes from Obama’s “successful” tax increase on the rich, breaking his promise to protect the middle class.

Obama was re-elected in spite of all of these failures, and more, because the media protected its investment with repeated spin, reporting success in everything. That spin continues even as Obama’s promises continue to fall and warnings and predictions from conservatives continue to become reality. Obama voters have been duped but, like the mainstream media, they continue to keep the dream alive through denial.

This denial is dangerous and it is allowing Obama’s promise to “fundamentally transform America” to come true – the one promise he is actually keeping. That promised “transformation” was ignored by a media intoxicated by “hope and change” and, therefore, never investigated. Tragically, it still remains ignored.

So, the farce goes on and on and points of no return are being passed with little awareness by the media and Obama voters. Eventually, the truth will become unavoidable and consequences will have to be faced but by then, too many bridges may have been burned. One can only hope that our children will be able to re-construct from those ashes some of the greatness America lost due to the hollow promises of “hope and change”.

David J. Hentosh

Obama’s Tax Charade

In his New Year message, president Obama made the claim that a middle class tax hike was prevented with the recent “fiscal cliff” agreement. He further stated that his priority has been to prevent a tax hike on 98% of all Americans in 2013 and that this agreement does that.

While it is true that expiration of the Bush tax cuts for 98% of Americans was prevented, the Social Security payroll tax holiday which was enacted in 2010 is going to expire, effectively raising taxes for most wage earners. This is a tax hike on the middle class that Obama pretends isn’t happening, amounting to a mean tax increase of approximately $1635 for 77% of Americans.

Obama’s class warfare succeeded in getting him re-elected and raising taxes on the rich, but the middle class he pretends to champion is now experiencing collateral damage from his war. Taxes, spending, and the deficit are rising and the middle class will have to pay for it for a long, long time. Meanwhile, the rich will continue to live well protecting their assets and some may leave the country to avoid Obama’s foolish attack.

Obama blows smoke and far too many inhale it willingly. He has previously stated that the last thing the middle class needs in this struggling economy is a tax increase, yet, his policies continue to raise taxes. Obamacare already increased health insurance premiums and taxes will have to increase to pay for it. Taxing the rich cannot possibly pay for all the entitlement programs Obama refuses to reduce – and he knows that. He just keeps it hidden with smoky rhetoric.

One can say that the American people deserve to be tricked and taxed because they elected the “leaders” doing it, but what of our children? They are going to be saddled with the cost of this charade for the rest of their lives. They don’t deserve to pay the consequences of poor decisions that elected such leadership. Even the rich kids don’t deserve this.

David J. Hentosh

Obamacare Kicks In, Surprising Even Democrats

As Pelosi warned, Obamacare had to be passed before we really found out what was in it. Some Democrats who blindly rubber-stamped Obama’s health care bill are now facing consequences of what they voted for and are unpleasantly surprised.

The tax on medical devices contained in Obamacare is going into effect at the start of 2013 and some Democrat Senators from states abundant with device industries are now trying to delay that tax because of the adverse economic effect it will have. It seems that Democrats’ love of tax hikes does not apply to taxes on constituents in their district.

That tax on medical devices, originally intended only for devices used on humans, is now going to burden veterinarians, too. It seems that government bureaucrats have determined that medical devices used by veterinarians could also be used on humans, so they will be taxed. Not many saw that coming.

Another hidden cost due to mandated coverage of pre-existing conditions is going to squeeze medical plans for $63 per person, a cost that will be passed on to the insured. The promise of medical insurance costing less under Obamacare has yet to materialize. Perhaps Pelosi will tell us it has to cost more in order to be cheaper.

Obamacare (a tax that is not a tax?) is increasing other taxes. Health care flexible spending accounts which allowed tax-free dollars, usually in the amount of $5000/year, to be used for health care costs are now going to be limited to $2500/year. The increased tax will affect many of the middle class as will the change in deductible medical expenses if you itemize deductions. Medical expenses exceeding 7.5% of your adjusted gross income used to be eligible for deductions but will now have to exceed 10%. (Taxing the sick?)

Fear not, however, because those making more than $200K/year will see higher Medicare taxes, paying in an additional 3.8% tax on their investment income. Obama’s war on the rich began long before it became fashionable and this tax on the rich will, no doubt, make everyone forget that the middle class is taking a tax hit with Obamacare. Smoke and mirrors always seem to work and taxing the rich solves everything.

David J. Hentosh